Funny that he scoffs at it being from a "cartoon" and rolls his eyes yet he's going to be in a "cartoon" playing Superman's father. Guess he changed his view of things?

Either way it worked out for both of them. In 2000, Russell Crowe became a superstar and won an Oscar for Gladiator and Hugh Jackman might have never gotten his big break and we would have never heard of him had Crowe taken the role.

I still remember when the first X-Men came and there was some snippet saying that Russell turned down the offer because he just did Gladiator, and didn't want to do another similar role.

So he felt that playing a Roman general-cum-gladiator in a historical epic was pretty similar to playing a modern day mutant with healing abilities, claws and an adamantium skeleton? I can see his logic there. If I squint

So he felt that playing a Roman general-cum-gladiator in a historical epic was pretty similar to playing a modern day mutant with healing abilities, claws and an adamantium skeleton? I can see his logic there. If I squint

Ah I can forgive Crowe anything, he's still a tremendous actor.

Maybe he meant similar in that he had to play this feroucious character who does violent things.

It was before Dougray Scott, some time in late 1998. He chose to do Gladiator, instead. I think the comparison was to Bud White, in LA Confidential, rather than Maximus.

The casting rumours were covered well on the CA website (which disappeared many years ago) and I remember the one about Crowe thinking the character was too similar to another he'd played but also that his price had gone up to $8m and that was too high for the film's budget of $65m (it later increased to $75m).